Ever think you’d like to host a wine tasting but fear you don’t know enough about wine? Fear not! You don’t need to know a lot about wine to throw a successful wine tasting party. All you need to do is decide the type of tasting you’d like to host, call up your friends, invite them to bring wine, and taste. Here are a few ideas to get you started, with fun to surely follow!

Red or White Tasting
If you and your friends are new to wine tastings, you might want to consider a tasting party involving only white or red wines. Invite your friends to bring their favorites and everyone will get to experience a variety of flavors. This will also help newbies discover the wide range of wine options!

General Tasting
Invite each of your friends to bring a bottle, or bottles, of their favorite wine. As guests arrive, assign their wine a number and place in a paper bag to ensure the label, name and the look of the bottle does not influence the tasting. Give each guest a note pad and pen. Once all the wines have been numbered and covered, let each guest taste and rank the wine on a 1, 2, 3 factor (ex. Okay, Good, Best). At the end of the night, the person who brought the wine with the highest score wins a prize!

Grape Varietal Tasting
For a varietal tasting, you and your guests will only drink a specific grape variety of wine to experience a range of flavors. Ex. only Moscato, Malbec, Pinot Noir etc. It’ll also give you a chance to experience the same variety or wine from different regions, for example, a German Riesling vs. a New York Riesling.

Regional Tasting
A wine region party will allow you and your guests to experience and compare different wines from a specific region, like Washington State.

Wine Tasting Party Tips
– Provide pen and paper so your guests can rate the wines and take notes.
– Plan on one bottle of wine per four guests. Fill each glass 1/3 full.
– Have a platter of unsalted crackers on hand to cleanse palates.
– Provide pitchers of water and buckets so guests can rinse and empty their glasses between wines.
– Serve appetizers after the tasting so your guests can truly appreciate the full flavor of the wine.